Most conventional advice recommends keeping work outside of the bedroom to boost calm and serenity within a sleeping space. But apparently most conventional advice givers have never had to make it all work with just 550 square feet. The bedroom-plus-office combo has always been a solid solution for tight quarters, and here's one more tip to keep a dual duty bedroom comfortable.

With space at a minimum, corners have to be cut — four of them to be exact. Instead of trying to fit a nightstand and desk together in one room, take one table completely out of the equation and set up a small sized desk bedside instead.

Cozy up a desk next to the bed, leaving some room at one end for bedside essentials like a lamp, an alarm clock, and somewhere to station a smartphone. With a chair or stool that tucks under the desk, the single table can pull double duty as both a nightstand and an occasional desk. Or forgo the chair entirely, like photo #3 above from Apartment Therapy's Big Book of Small Cool Spaces, where the bed backs right up to a shelf that serves as a nightstand and workspace.